Job-Viewing Counts Back to Pre-COVID-19 Rates, But Not Every Sector Is So Lucky!
According to research conducted on LinkedIn, the number of job-posting and job-viewing dropped sharply at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. By mid-May, job search and job-viewing reached the January figures although the rates of job-posting and recruitment are still not recovering. Unemployment rates rising worldwide and the decrease in the number of job-postings have caused the number of views per post on LinkedIn to nearly doubled since the end of March.
But of course, this trend is not valid for every sector. While the number of views per post increased in sectors such as education, software, and healthy life; significant decreases are observed in these numbers in the travel, health, and retail sectors. The main reason a job posting gets more views is that fewer job postings are currently posted, especially in the industries where the number of views per job is growing the fastest. As a result, candidates are now facing more competition with each other, with fewer job opportunities available.
The reasons for the increase in the number of job postings also differ according to the sectors. The increase in the number of views per post in the education sector was probably due to the fact that the educators who were unemployed due to the pandemic viewed more job postings whose number was decreasing. On the other hand, the reason for the increase in the software industry is that the roles here are more easily adaptable to remote work.
Well, if you ask what all these findings mean for recruiters, let’s explain! If you are in an industry restricted by COVID-19, this does not necessarily mean that you will struggle to find a candidate. It may even be easier to find talent if you are one of the few companies hiring in your industry. Especially if you are hiring for a position that has a remote working model, getting twice as many applications will allow you to have a wider talent pool.
Not every sector experience this increase, on the contrary, if the number of job postings in a sector has increased, but the number of job seekers remains the same, the number of job-viewing automatically decreases. During the pandemic, the job-postings have increased as the need has increased especially in the health, travel, and retail sectors, but candidates do not prefer these sectors for obvious reasons. Therefore, the number of job-viewing in these sectors has also decreased considerably. Consequently, employers in these sectors may have to make new regulations on wages, benefits, or employee safety to attract candidates.
As a result, developing your employer brand can still make a difference through the decline in candidate numbers is due to major macroeconomic forces. Even if you are not recruiting right now, how you manage the process and the differences you create for your employees during the pandemic can make it easier for candidates to choose you when the right time comes.